Japan’s 308

On 30th August (308), a new prime minister emerged from Japan. Changing Prime Ministers is nothing new in Japan, but what is new is that this prime minister is not from LDP, Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for almost an eternity….

In the election on 30th August, LDP was defeated by DPJ, Democratic PArty of Japan, and a new era begins..

No one would have guessed  10 years back that LDP would become an opposition party one day. It was  a dominant force in Japan and the heads of the various factions inside the pary has been taking turns to become the PM.

In fact when Prime Minister Mahathir  took over in 1982, the model he was looking at was Japan, and his concept of Malaysian Incorporated was inspired by Japan incorporated, where politicians have close links with  big businesses , civil service as well as the Japanese triads.

Japan was an economic miracles from the 60s to 70s, and their ‘ovaltine engine cars” have become ubiquitous in most countries of the world, and almost every household has something made in Japan.

However, with the close links between the various players mentioned above, asset prices became inflated , share prices went through the roof, and the economy became a bubble, which eventually burst. Japan has since not recovered from the bubble burst, and even though at one time interest rate was down to zero percent, economy stagnation continues. Just as its economy started to grow again, the present economic depression again drags down its economy and no one really knows when Japan will come out from its recession this time.

Coming back to Malaysia, Malaysia Incorporated pushed the country into a growth path in the 80s and early 90s. In the 90s , at one time, employment was so easy that a worker could just quit one job and the next day got another one with higher pay.

Malaysia Incorporated’s “success” led to cronyism, nepotism and corruption, which in turn led to loss of excellence and abuse of power and misues of institution for personal interest.

Looking at Japan’s example, and that of Kuomintang in Taiwan in the 90s, will Malaysia go the way of Taiwan and Japan?   Will the wind of change of 308 become a typhoon and sweep the incumbents away? It is highly possible especially after the results of the 7 by elections since 308, and the party fights within the 2nd biggest component party.

If LDP can be voted out, then anything is possible in Malaysia…. Unless the opposition shoots itself in its own legs in the next couple of years, and cracked up even before the next GE. In that case, they have only themselves to blame for flunking a golden opportunity that is being presented to them on a silver platter.

Look at the larger picture !

A few days ago I have written a post “It is now war”‘. In that post, I have written this paragraph:

This comes at a time when OTK is adamant in trying to get to the bottom of the PKFZ, much to the chagrin of the big brother, and for that and that alone, Malaysians must give full support to him. Whether he was given 10 millions as alleged by a BN power broker is another issue altogether and that should be left to the court to decide since a court case has already been filed by OTKeat for a whopping 500 millions.

I am neither a supporter of MCA nor its president OTK.  But this time, i think Malaysians must cast aside their personal likes or dislikes and support OTK as the Minister of Transport to dig deeper into the PKFZ fiasco. OTK of course needs to account for the allegations of the 10 millions as well as the need to take rides on private planes, but that is a different matter from this issue and should be addressed separately.

News has it that CSL faction has collected enough signature for a EGM, and if this is true , it is bad news for OTK. As I have said, many fence sitters are giving their support to CSL, either because of sympathy or they think that OTK should answer for the harsh punishment meted out to Chua.

I would like to urge MCA delegates to cast aside their personal feelings, and think of the larger issues. What will be the consequences of a CSL victory? What would happen if a vote of no confidence against OTK is passed and that CSL is reinstated as the deputy?

1. OTK would have to resign and CSL would automatically become acting president of MCA and with that

2. CSL may become the Minister of Transport. Although the making public of the PKFZ report is a cabinet decision, it would not have happened if the minister in charge is  opposed to it. So, credit must be given to OTk for pursuing this PKFZ issue. WOuld CSL continue pursue this with the same determination and zeal as OTK? Most unlikely.

3. Assuming that CSL becomes the minister, what would happen  if he tries to preach morality to Malaysians when his own moral standard has been tarnished? How is he going to handle any scandals that may erupt later in his ministry or party?

4. Imagine CSL leading a Malaysian delegation for an overseas trip and foreign media touch on the DVD sex scandal, what would happen to Malaysia? How would the other members of the delegation feels when faced with such situation?

5. As a minister, he has to project an image of purity and impeccability. But do you think he can still project that when he has lost the moral high ground? How is he going to talk to the younger generations and give advice to them?

6. HOw is he going to bargain with UMNO over certain national or community interests given that he himself has such a past history?

When the DVD sex scandal was made public many months ago, I wrote to praise him for his courage to own up his misdeeds. I still admire his courage to admit. He could have said that ‘the person in the dvd looks like me, sounds like me, move like me but not me”.

I have also mentioned that he was one of the best ministers of health, and his combination with Lee Kah Choon (parliamentary sec then) was deemed by most of the Ministry of Health staff as the most effective and best ever. However, the issue here is bigger than any person and if we want a continuity in pursuing the PKFZ and nabbed all the culprits, we need to put our support behind OTK.

Remember some time about 3 years ago, OTK digged out the embezzlement of a school allocation? At that time, he was asked to apologise and in the end , his minister (UMNO ) apologised on his behalf only to have MIC president voicing out the same thing in support of OTK. At that time OTK was only a deputy minister and Youth chief , a dispensable position, and yet he dared to speak out. That courage is admirable and is seldom present in BN non UMNO politicians, and for that he should be praised. This time we hope that he will have the same courage to pursue this PKFZ fiasco, which is many many times more serious than the school fund incident.

 The ball is now at the feet of the MCA delegates. Hopefully they do not think of personal ties and relations only but rather look at the bigger picture of national interest.

Leaders  come and go. CSL should have gracefully retired after the DVD scandal. Let OTK finish his work, and then if he cannot bring true reforms to MCA, then have someone challenge him at the next or subsequent party election. BUt in the mean time, we should give him a chance to prove himself. CSl should follow the advice of an old Chinese saying that a true leader  should be  able to take up, and know when to put down…It is time for him to put down his ambitions  and enjoy retirement….